hi I'm Marie Fontaine and I'm with the
friends of buttonwood park the reason
we're here today is to launch our
campaign to raise the funds to rebuild
the basketball courts here at Buttonwood
park so we've gathered a group of people
to walk around the park to show our
support for this campaign we're
delighted to have with us folks from New
Bedford High School tomtar p the coach
of the basketball team was kind enough
to ask his players to join us we'll have
folks from the Boys and Girls Clubs and
from third eye unlimited and hopefully
lots of the public who saw our flyer and
heard about it on the radio yeah hi I'm
Richard Larry I'm one of the members of
the Friends of buttonwood Park
basketball courts upgrade project
buttonwood courts are in bad need of
upgrading the last time they were
probably upgraded was 30 years ago
they're very popular courts they're
heavily used and we just like to see
them brought up to the same level of
quality as the rest of the courts in New
Bedford i grew up for houses from the
park and as a child as a youth as a
teenager as a young adults and he's even
as an older adults I've spent literally
thousands of hours playing basketball
sometimes by myself sometimes with the
small group of kids and sometimes with
large groups of team play it's been very
very meaningful to me and I know it's
very meaningful as a recreational
resource for the kids of New Bedford the
friendship buttonwood park has spent a
considerable amount of time over the
years trying to upgrade what I might
call the passive elements of the park
now we've begun to focus on the active
recreational components and we're really
looking at everything the basketball
courts the tennis courts trails for our
first project we decided to focus on the
basketball courts and that's why we're
here I manage the president of
friendship buttonwood pi and we're here
to kick off our
big campaign to restore the basketball
courts in buttonwood park maybe get to
the tennis courts walking trails and all
the active recreational pursuits that
everybody enjoys in that pack that's why
we're here basketball poet courts were a
place that I hung out when I was growing
up and but you saw a lot of activity a
lot of kids use them still the same way
but the courts need to be replaced and
unfortunately we haven't been able to
use community development money for that
purpose like we have in other locations
so the City Council and this city
council are really committed to helping
the friends to make this a reality and
keeping but what Parker we're a center
of community activity how y'all doing
out there my name is Jimmy Beauregard on
the board of directors for the Friends
of buttonwood Park and we're here today
to raise money for the basketball courts
and we having a little walk it's gonna
be a lot of fun and the reason I joined
the board of directors is because I care
about the park Olmstead park woke good
up we get that and very pleased to be
among these fine people who want to
preserve the park so that everybody can
enjoy it
the root of the walk will go from court
street down to brownell Avenue then over
route 6 come around lake street and back
down porch street and end at the
basketball courts
eventually we'd like to get a program
going to for our tree care we have a lot
of old trees in this park and they need
constant attention which I have not been
getting so that's what we're up to and
we're all excited this is a beautiful
park and a lot of the reason that it's a
beautiful park not only because of the
city workers but because of the private
investment done by the Friends abutment
park we have a subcommittee on the
friends it actually comes in what is the
saplings in the summer so that they grow
and they thrive and there's a lot of a
lot of volunteer work that goes into the
prac a lot of planting a lot of cleaning
up that the friends do that keeps this
place beautiful yeah I'm here with my
friend Frank panel and we're the guys
who are trying to determine the layout
of eSports how they're going to be
arranged how long they are the other
with respect to that we're very
interested in the input certainly a
basketball players and anyone else who's
interested in this project and to find
out more information about it you can
send email for example to friends at
Buttonwood park org or send it to me
Richard Leary are leery at New Bedford
calm and we'll send you all the
information you you need to know what
we're doing you know why we're doing it
and you know what some of the issues are
and how you can support us either with
your input or during the fundraising
campaign or some of the other things we
might do we all know why we're here
we're here because we love these
basketball courts we love basketball and
these courts we love them but they're
sadly out of shape they're in tough
shape so they really need to be replaced
and that's what we want to do
essentially take these three courts
demolish them
and build brand new ones one of you
choose to be like things like that but
we all agree on that just a few words as
to how we got here I grew up for houses
from the park and as a kid as a youth as
a teenager as a young adult and even as
an older adult you know I've played
literally thousands of hours of
basketball on these courts right here
and my good friend Frank he's done the
same thing over the years we play more
tennis mountain basketball but we still
know where to look at is right for us
right and so the two of us you know we a
lot of times just bemoan the
conditionally caught these courts it's
like wow sad to see look at hazelwood
look at look at united front put some of
these other courts they're brand new why
not buttonwood and there was a good
reason for it has to something do with
the federal government so we approached
our President President friends of
tombuttle park and EADS who just spoke
to you and we told her that you know we
thought that maybe the friend should be
supporting maybe we could do something
about these ports and right from the
get-go she was behind us one hundred
percent because I just want to say that
this woman here with respect to
buttonwood park she's for the city she's
for the people of New Bedford she's for
the park and she's for recreation via
basketball tennis whatever but certainly
when we came to her with the basketball
idea she was behind it 100% and the rest
of the friends got behind it 100% too so
we had that full support and that's what
I'm going to have all the way through it
but it took one person um a key
ingredient that had been missing and
that's a brief fontaine with marine we
just read
and she's like the business person and
this project isn't going to succeed
without a business plan without talking
to different community people and
without money and the rest of us really
didn't know how to go about that but we
came in she brought the brains and the
ideas and the knowledge to bring that
this project to the next level which is
we're at right now and with respect to
the Squawk I just wanted to say we have
Cecilia porche and we have Jean Bennett
and a couple of other folks who were
prime movers behind getting this walk
together if we can just give them a big
fan now last thing I just want to say
you know thanks to mere Mitchell he's
fully behind this project thanks to
former mayor Lang who is here today
who's a big supporter of this project
and is helping us out a lot next to Pat
Sullivan and the office of housing and
community development and a Ross Moran
from the rec department who are also you
know working with us and what we're
doing Anton tarpey and the coaches coach
Baptiste coached RP any Rodricks and
peoples in a boys club and I want to
mention my man over here see on Tina
Wayne Hathaway teon has been a big help
to me from the get-go and I'm gonna ask
you in a minute just come up here and
say couples come on up here now do you
honor all right oh yeah and so you know
the fruit this is a friend's project but
more than that it's a community project
and and we're going to need everyone's
help to make this succeed it's not our
core it's not the French port it's
everybody's court so we encourage you
when we hope that all of you will help
out spread the word you know do what you
can and certainly are coming out today
has been a huge a wonderful thing to get
this thing kicked off and like I say you
have any questions get in contact with
me uneasy to find talk to be on he knows
how together t on he knows how to get a
hold of me and you know that's basically
it come to the meet those of you who can
come to the meeting around the 17 14 14
14 to send their fliers out there we
want to get your input you know should
we have 384 foot coach
have to 84 and a 16 you know this kind
of practical stuff and also ideas about
fundraising so come to that meeting but
at the very least send me an email
message and just say hey I just want to
keep and keep keep informed as to what's
happening with the project so I would
Frank it and i'll i'll put with that i
let Frank say a few words and I'll just
let T on say a few words about the
project well I'll just echo what Richard
said that we played hours and hours
great times and I guess probably about
the same way like basketball junkies
can't get enough of us and that's the
story we were yeah I'm gonna piggyback
off of both of these gentlemen oh man I
also want to thank former mayor Lang who
actually at our first tournament that we
had here for the ASAP program and you
guys played in it for the last couple
years um that was the initial the
initial jump off in their lane coming
out speed me and and recognizing that
that we should try to go forward and try
to get this piloted and thanks to
Richard Larry's relentlessness of we're
here today and I commend everyone and
thereafter export before beginning the
walk and looking forward to getting this
done and seeing hopefully we can get
this done for the spring all right